Context/Background
Morals= an individual's beliefs about what's right or wrong
Everyone is born amoral, lacking values of right and wrong, our morals develop/change over time as we interact with our environment and learn our society's rules
Each morality stage has to be passed in order to move onto the next one
Freud = moral development proceeds when our selfish desires have been repressed and replaced with values of socialising agents, e.g. parents
Piaget = It is necessary to study how morality manifests in children and to learn the factors that contribute to moral concepts like justice and personal rights
Kohlberg saw moral development as more gradual than Piaget, he made a 3 level, 6 stage sequence of development
1- Preconventional level
Stage 1- Orientation towards obedience to avoid punishment and the belief in authority is based on obeying rules to be rewarded, our value of life is based on status or physical attributes
Stage 2- Orientation to behaviour that satisfies one's own selfish needs, conforming only for results/rewards, value of life is based on how much it satisfies our own needs
2- Conventional level
Stage 3- Orientation towards behaviour that pleases others = conforming to avoid disapproval of others, value of life is based on how much everyone else values someone
Stage 4- Orientation towards authority, rules and social order, we conform to avoid displeasure of authority, value of life based on someone's place in society
3- Post-conventional level
Stage 5- Orientation towards behaviour that is agreed on by society, we conform to maintain the respect of others, our value of life is based on it's contribution to society and we understand that life is a universal human right
Stage 6- Orientation towards behaviour that meets our own moral needs, we conform to avoid self-condemnation, our value of life is based on universal respect for each individual
Aim
To investigate development in moral reasoning, in moral development and to assess changes between cultures
Method
Longitudinal study, some boys over a 12 year period, cross cultural element
Procedure
75 USA boys, in 3 year intervals, aged 22-28 at the end of the study
P's presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas (short stories)
Aspects assessed included motive for obedience, value of life by asking "Is it better to save 1 important person or a lot of unimportant people?" and "should a doctor mercy kill a fatally ill woman requesting death?"
Boys of other cultures (Taiwan, UK, Canada, Mexico and Turkey) were studied, aged 10-13 and asked about food theft "a man's wife is starving to death, but the shop won't give the man any food without payment, should he steal the food and why?"
Findings (usa)
Results showed that in 50% of the 6 stages, an individual's thinking was at a single stage only, regardless of the dilemma and p's showed progress through stages with increased ages
Not all p's progressed to stage 6, but they always progressed through the stages in the same order, never going backwards
Cross cultural findings
Taiwanese boys aged 10-13 gave classic stage 2 responses. middle class urban 10 year old boys in USA, Taiwan and Mexico went through the same order of stages
In USA, by the age of 16, stage 6 was barely used, and at 13 the 3rd stage was not yet used
Mexico and Taiwan had slower development than USA
Middle class boys were more advanced morally than lower class
There was no differences between morals in different religions
Conclusions
Definite order of moral development stages, an individual may stop at any stage/age
6 Stage theory = not significantly affected by cultures, only difference is the progression rates
Evaluation
Research method- Longitudinal design = advantage because it eliminated individual differences, so no extraneous variables
Data type- qual. data in interviews = full detailed answers rather than quant. data, it allowed p's to express their views and beliefs fully
Ethics- raised a few ethical issues but no deception or distress, privacy wasn't a problem
Validity- Low ecological validity because the moral dilemmas were not real, the interviews could've brought on demand characteristics
Reliability- easy to replicate, high external reliability but internal reliability was lower because the p's didn't consistently link their beliefs to stages
Sample- American boys, so ethno and andro centric. different social classes were sampled so it was a bit more representative